FS-ISAC Coronavirus Update, Jan. 22, 2021

Headlines

• Within his first few days in office, President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s Covid-19 outbreak, warning that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”
• In recent days, coronavirus cases have been dropping steadily across the US, with hospitalizations falling in concert, but health officials are growing increasingly concerned that quickly circulating variants of the virus could cause new surges of cases faster than the country is managing to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.
• Los Angeles County had some good news Friday after more than two months of a deadly Covid-19 surge that has killed 4,000 residents since New Year's Day, with new coronavirus cases decreasing this week by 30%, the test positivity rate dropping to 12.7% from nearly 21% earlier in the month, and the daily number of people hospitalized decreasing by 8 percent.
• An independent panel of vaccine experts has reviewed data from Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine and will make public its recommendations on the vaccine's use next Tuesday, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
• Severe allergic reactions to the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are a “rare event,” according to a report published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that as of January 10, among the more than 4 million people vaccinated with the first dose of the shot, only 10 had severe allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis - a rate of 2.5 cases per million doses administered.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday that 1.6 million more vaccines have been given out, the biggest single-day increase yet reported, and data showed how more than 19 million doses have now been administered, about 48% of the nearly 40 million doses that have been distributed.
• About 6 in 10 people in the US don’t know when or where to get a coronavirus vaccine, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds, with the report, based on surveys conducted from January 11 to 18 with 1,563 participants, also suggesting Americans are experiencing a range of emotions as a result of the chaotic vaccine rollout, with half saying they are “frustrated,” a third said they felt “confused,” and nearly a quarter are “angry.” 
• Pfizer announced today that its Covid-19 vaccine trial in children ages 12 to 15, which began in October, is now fully enrolled with 2,259 participants, but the company said it does not know when data will be available.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly changed its recommendations for coronavirus immunizations to allow patients to switch the authorized vaccines between the first and second doses in “exceptional situations,” and to extend the interval between doses to six weeks, even though such changes have not been studied in large clinical trials.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that to make a difference in the vaccine rollout, they need to get into local areas to understand what’s going wrong and how to fix it, adding “It’s a complicated issue” when asked one thing he would like to see today to make a difference on vaccinations.
• The European Union will seek clarification from Pfizer on reports of new delays in delivering Covid-19 vaccines, chief spokesperson for European Commission Eric Mamer said Friday, stressing that the Commission is constantly in contact with the manufacturers and are aware of recent developments.
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday that while “some signs of flattening in the data” have been observed, the United Kingdom government cannot consider lifting national lockdown measures while rates of infection and hospital admissions remain “so very high.”
• German health officials on Friday described the death toll from Covid-19 in the country as “depressing” and “inconceivable,” as the total number of fatalities passed the 50,000 mark, with Health Minister Jens Spahn saying that while there was some initial relief in intensive care unit facilities, the number of patients admitted was still too high.
• More than 10 million households in the US, or nearly one-fourth of the nation's renters, are behind on rent, according to the most recent Census Household Pulse survey, and a Moody's Analytics report this week shows that Americans owe a collective $57 billion in back rent as of January.
• The chief executive of staffing group Adecco warned that some office workers don’t feel their mental health is being supported sufficiently during the pandemic, with Alain Dehaze saying his firm’s research of 8,000 office employees - in different companies, across eight countries - showed a need for more ‘emotional intelligence’ among managers, and 28% of employees saying their mental health got worse during the pandemic, and only 1 in 10 felt their managers exceeded employees’ expectations in supporting them.
• Americans and consumers across the globe will be slow to revert to pre-pandemic habits like flying internationally, commuting by public transit and eating at restaurants, even when Covid-19 vaccines are widely available, according to a new survey from Nielsen. 
• President Joe Biden issued an executive order Friday that will have the Treasury Department re-evaluating its delivery structure to ensure every American who is eligible for stimulus checks receives them, with an estimated 8 million eligible Americans still not having received their $1,200 checks authorized by the CARES Act last year.
• Americans and consumers across the globe will be slow to revert to pre-pandemic habits like flying internationally, commuting by public transit and eating at restaurants, even when Covid-19 vaccines are widely available, according to a new survey from Nielsen.
• United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby wants to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for the carrier’s more than 60,000 employees and says other companies should follow, but his stance differs from those of other airlines like Southwest Airlines and American Airlines and other sectors like retail.
• National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell announced Friday the league will allow 22,000 fans at Super Bowl LV next month, with 7,500 vaccinated health care workers receiving free tickets to the game, who will be recognized with planned tributes in the stadium and during the broadcast.

Vaccines - US

1. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today the number of administered doses reported this week was 22% higher than last week, and that around 5% of the US population - about 16.2 million people – have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 2.8 million people are fully vaccinated.
2. Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he thinks that the country will do better than the goal of 100 million vaccine doses administered in President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, adding “Obviously, you want to do as best as you possibly can, I’d like it to be a lot more.”
3. Johnson & Johnson board member Dr. Mark McClellan said on Thursday the company plans to have "enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring, " and reported that the clinical trial is "going on at very large scale right now" to make sure it's safe and effective.
4. Publix has expanded its vaccination efforts to nearly 400 locations across three states, according to a statement from the grocery store and pharmacy chain on Friday, with the company currently offering doses in three out of seven states where they operate stores, including 108 locations in Georgia, 42 in South Carolina and 242 in Florida.
5. Walmart is set to extend its vaccination program to seven more states, as well as Chicago and Puerto Rico, with the company beginning to offer shots in Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas this week and next.
6. Walgreens, one of the big pharmacy chains tapped by federal officials to help vaccinate the residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care centers, acknowledged on Friday that the rollout had not gone as smoothly or as quickly as had been promised.
7. New York State expects to run out of its supply of vaccines before the end of Friday, but more doses will begin to arrive in the coming days, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced.
8. Massachusetts VA Boston Health Care System reported that about 1,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine were compromised when a cleaning contractor accidentally loosened the freezer’s plug at the Jamaica Plain VA campus, vaccine that was designated for employees at the health care facility as well as inpatient and outpatient veterans.
9. Some people this week waited in line for up to five hours at Dodger Stadium - the largest vaccination site in the US - amid low supply of the vaccine in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday night, with of the most of the individuals over 65 years old.
10. Amazon on Thursday said it will open a pop-up clinic at its downtown Seattle campus Sunday to vaccinate about 2,000 eligible state residents.

New Variants - US

1. New Jersey reported its first two cases of the United Kingdom variant Friday, an Ocean County man, who is in his 60s and developed symptoms but had no travel history or clear exposures to others who were ill, and an asymptomatic child who had traveled to the northern part of the state.
2. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not meet a goal set at the beginning of the year to double the number of coronavirus genomes being sequenced in an effort to quickly ramp up surveillance for possibly dangerous mutations, according to numbers from the federal agency released today.
3. New York state is running about 1,000 genome tests every week to identify any potential appearances of new, more infectious strains, according to the state’s chief physician Howard Zucker, with the state running roughly 6,000 tests so far and has only found the variant originating from the United Kingdom in 24 cases.
4. Vaccinations will not only help stop the virus from spreading, they will also hamper the coronavirus' ability to mutate into new variants, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday, explaining “Viruses don’t mutate unless they replicate.”
5. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards implored residents Friday to continue to wear a mask as the United Kingdom variant is confirmed across the nation and last week the Department of Health identified at least one case in the state. 

US Outbreak

1. There were 188,952 new cases in the US on Thursday and an additional 3,955 fatalities were registered nationwide, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University
2. Fewer than 120,000 people in the US were hospitalized Friday, the lowest level since December 27 and in line with pre-Christmas data, according to The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project, a number that has been consistently improving since January 12 when hospitalization levels approached their all-time peak of 132,000 patients.
3. Despite challenges with the distribution and administration of vaccines, the US "can and should" vaccinate 70-85% of adults by the end of summer, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday, who added that if officials do hit that benchmark, it could means a semblance of normalcy by the fall.
4. California reported 23,024 new cases on Friday, and recorded its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.
5. National Guard members who were in Washington, D.C. have tested positive, with unnamed Maryland soldiers reporting "the coronavirus is raging among National Guard members" without specifying the extend of the outbreak, and three unnamed Guard sources saying that hundreds of members are infected.
6. Washington, DC’s Capital Police Union reported Friday that nineteen officers have tested positive two weeks after the riot, but could not confirm how many were on duty the day of the attack.
7. Missouri’s state health department has not been including results from rapid antigen tests when reporting case totals, with a data analysis finding that in January the numbers are projected to be 20% to 40% higher on any given day if the results had been included in the daily infection counts.

US Restrictions & Schools

1. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced today that indoor dining at restaurants and bars will resume at 25% capacity with up to 100 people on February 1, the latest signal the state is moving past the second wave that struck in the fall, and under the new order that will last through February 21 establishments but close at 10PM each night, and tables must also be six feet apart with no more than six people per table.
2. Chicago’s school district announced Friday that it plans to start vaccinating teachers in mid-February, though it remained to be seen if that would be enough to stop the teachers union from voting to defy the district’s order to return to their classrooms next week.

Business Related

1. President Joe Biden is calling on the Department of Labor to make it clear that workers are entitled to refuse employment that jeopardizes their health, without sacrificing unemployment benefits.
2. President Biden signed a second executive order Friday that will lay the groundwork for the federal government to institute a $15 an hour minimum wage for its employees and contract workers, while making it easier for federal workers to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits.
3. Groups representing the US travel industry and airlines on Friday voiced opposition to mandatory quarantines for air passengers arriving in the country from overseas a day after President Biden signed an order to take that step.
4. A new economic survey from Nelsen, which is at odds with some Wall Street investors, who have had a rosier outlook and a brisker timetable for consumers returning to their old routines, found that:

• 64% of US respondents said they will spend the same amount on groceries
• 41% said they won’t change the amount they spend out out-of-home dining
• About the same amount said they will spend more dining out as those who said they will spend less - 24% and 22%, respectively
• 40% said they have confidence in using public transportation, even when they know they can receive a vaccine

1. Some of New York’s biggest employers are urging local leaders to let them help with the vaccination effort, arguing that the slow rollout is putting the state’s economic recovery at risk, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and KKR & C among a few dozen companies that got on a call Thursday with the state’s vaccination czar.
2. US employees of Brazilian-owned meatpacker JBS SA and its subsidiary, Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., will get a $100 bonus if they opt for the vaccine, with the company hoping the payment will lead to a high percentage of its 66,000-strong workforce being vaccinated, which will mean fewer outbreaks and disruptions in production.